Computer Problems and\or Advice 2008 to 2011

[Diane Clement]

Christine, I think Diane Clement may be using W7... or trialling it at work.... . 

No I'm not.  We are very old fashioned and are still using XP. 
Maggi, I think you may be remembering a conversation we had about Internet Explorer 7 which we are using at work. 

[Maggi Young]

Very likely, Diane .   Sorry for the duff gen, Christine!! 

[ChrisB]

Ok, but if anyone does get it, can you let me know what you think?  I had a quick go on it at a friend's house yesterday and it looks decent.  Better than Vista anyway.  For now I'm sticking with my trusty xp.

thanks everyone

[Susan]

For what it is worth.  I run Vista on my PC and have a new notebook which has W7 on it.  I like both.  I have not found anything too bad with W7 yet, except for excel which I am still coming to grips with and that is possibly me not the programme.

I do not use either of the Windows email or web browsers.  I use Mozilla Thunderbird for email, and Firefox and have for some years. No crashing, freezing  or any of the other things that seemed to happen with the Windows based systems.

Susan

[JohnLonsdale]

Hi,

We have 3 computers at home, two PCs and a laptop.  I've been running XP Pro on all three since its introduction.  Prior to that I used Windows 2000 Pro; I never used Vista - too many issues as it wasn't ready for prime time when it was introduced, poor driver support etc.  6 weeks ago I bought the W7 three license pack and immediately installed it on my main PC - but in a dual boot configuration, so that I can select whether to use XP Pro or W7.  Note that if you are moving from XP to W7 there is no 'upgrade' path - you have to do a clean install.  You can upgrade from Vista but I'd recommend the clean install even then.  I keep all my data on multiple hard drives separate from the drive that has the operating systems on it so the migration was very easy - I just had to make a new partition on the boot drive for W7.

The installation was seamless and quick and all the drivers for my various peripherals were downloaded and installed automatically.  I reinstalled my apps and pointed them to the existing data paths.  I've tweaked W7 a bit and turned off most of the visual gizmos except the ones that make it look really nice.  I did the same in XP.  Performance is great, faster than XP Pro under my conditions.  It is incredibly stable and plays very nicely with everything I use.  Networking is much friendlier than under XP - I have a wireless network here with 4 machines on it, and the phone, 2 iPhones/iPods, printers, scanners  and the FIOS TV set-up - all shared on the new network.  There's lots I could add but there are tons of reviews out there which do a good job of describing the features.

After using W7 for a month I went ahead and installed it on the laptop (dual boot also) and the other PC.  Both went perfectly and I've moved over to it permanently on all 3 machines now.  Does it do anything that XP didn't do that I really can't live without - no.  Does it do a lot of things better, sure.  Is it fun - yes.  Whether you move or not is a personal choice but I certainly wouldn't stick with everything I had already just because it functioned OK - life would be very boring!

Best,

J.

[TC]

The web site  Windows Secrets gives detailed instructions on installing Windows 7 as an upgrade to Vista or XP.  However, Microsoft states that it violates the license if the system is dual booted.  Edit by Maggi: see info below....... in next post



Another interesting point is that you can do a clean install from the upgrade pack thereby saving money on the price of a new operating system.  The articles make interesting reading if you have the understanding and skill to use the information.  Not me unfortunately!!

[JohnLonsdale]

The comment "However, Microsoft states that it violates the license if the system is dual booted." is inaccurate.  See for example

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Install-more-than-one-operating-system-multiboot

which starts off - "When you install the new version of Windows, you can keep an older version of Windows on your computer. This is often called a multiboot or dual-boot configuration."

Multi-booting has been a perfectly legitimate and legal procedure since the day when two OS were made available, as long as you have licenses for the products.  If you buy an upgrade version of W7 and use it to upgrade an existing qualifying version of XP or Vista then it is correct that you are not supposed to continue using the version that was the basis for the upgrade.  In my case I have full licenses for all the products. Whether you use the 'full' or 'upgrade' versions of W7 the only path for migration from XP to W7 is through a clean install.  

Best,

John

[TC]

Have a look at this web site and see what they say.  Possibly I have picked up what they say incorrectly as I am no expert in this matter.  I have dual boot system also- Vista 64 - which is useless -and XP Pro so I can run my slide scanner and some other programs that Vista 64 bit will not support.  I had thought of changing to Windows 7 until I read this article.  By the way, this web site is run by computer software specialists not inexperienced "geeks"

[ChrisB]

All this is most interesting to me.  When I looked at W7 on my friend's computer, she said her whole computer ran more quickly than before, but she had been using Vista home ed. I wasn't sure if it would work better than my XP so thanks John!

[JohnLonsdale]

Chris,

One thing I do and that you might try is just do a clean reinstall of your existing operating system and applications, if you are just after a performance improvement rather than a new OS with new features.  It is a bit of a pain but it is something I do once a year on all my machines.  It is much easier if you have your data and OS on separate drives, then you can just format and go.  Even on a well maintained machine it is amazing how much 'stuff' builds up that impacts performance.

The other quick win, that never fails, is to up the amount of RAM you have.  Unless you have legacy RD RAM the memory is dirt cheap these days - so max out the amount your machine can handle and performance will rocket.

Best,

John

[Kristl Walek]

something to amuse you.
first tech support guy.

[David Shaw]

So, Kristl, this is suggesting that I would find it easier to read a scroll, hmm, yes, possibly?
I liked the video very much, thank you.

[David Nicholson]

I enjoyed that very much indeed Kristl. Just perfect for one who wouldn't recognise a "clean install" if it kicked him in the teeth

[Hristo]

A plea for help, I see when you are sending a private message there is an option to include an image. On clicking the button the system inserts (img)(img), great, what do I do next? Can't copy and insert an image and there does not seem to be any window for uploading an image.
Cheers
Chris

[mark smyth]

I would like to know also. Why not email the person?